Relatives of Josefa Maria noticed that she was not feeling well earlier this year when she stopped asking for cigarettes every day.
This comes after the retired Brazilian farmer celebrated his 120th birthday. “My mother smoked all her life,” says Sisera, one of Josepha’s children. They had 22 children.
As she got older, we tried to wean her from smoking. But my mother always threatened to go and buy cigarettes herself.
Relatives say he is weaker than in previous years. She was famous in her country for being the ‘oldest woman in the world’ for a local television report.
Meanwhile, Jessie’s birth certificate shows that he was born on February 7, 1902, and his bid for the Guinness World Record was successful.
The current title of the world’s oldest person belongs to the French nun Lucille Rendon, known as Sister Andre. His age is 118 years.
The male record is held by Juan Vicente Mora from Venezuela who is 113 years old.
Over the years, Sister Andre’s position as the world’s only elderly woman has been constantly changing. Because the number of centenarians is increasing.
Soon we will have over a million centenarians.
The United Nations Population Fund estimates that in 2021 there were approximately 621,000 people in the world over 100 years of age. By the end of the current decade, this number will exceed one million.
In contrast, in 1990, only 92 thousand people had reached this limit.
Humans have come a long way towards longevity. Thanks to economic development, medicine, treatment, food and better living conditions, man has lived longer than his predecessors.
In 1960, when the United Nations recorded world statistics, the average age was about 52 years.
But we still have a long way to go before we reach the age of 100.
Most of us around the world cannot even expect to reach our 75th birthday as the global average life expectancy is around 73 years.
Of course, the situation is not the same in different countries. For example, an average person in Japan lives to the age of 85, and another person in the Central African Republic lives to an average of only 54 years. Also, most people who reach old age suffer from chronic diseases.
Janet Lord, a professor of cell biology at the University of Birmingham in the UK, says that ‘longevity does not mean living a good life.’
According to Professor Lord, on average, men spend 16 years of their lives with diseases like diabetes and dementia, and women spend 19 years of their lives.
What is the secret of longevity?
It is not easy to reach the age of 100 years.
A long-term study by Boston University estimated that only one in five million Americans could live to be at least 110 years old.
Although researchers put the number at around 60-70 people in 2010, in 2017 the number has reached 150 people.
Centenarians are of great interest to scientists who conduct research in the field of human longevity and aging.
“These people are resilient to what happens to other people as a result of aging, and we don’t really know why,” says Professor Lord.
Apart from longevity, such people are known for their health and good physical condition. For example, according to her family members, Josefa does not need to take any medication regularly and still eats sweets and red meat.
It is true that his memory has deteriorated and his eyesight has deteriorated, but Sisera admits that he is still in awe of his mother’s condition.
“She can’t walk like she used to and we have to pick her up and change her diapers like a baby,” says her 76-year-old son. But I still can’t believe that my mother has lived for so many years, she has been smoking since childhood and has gone through decades of hard physical labour.’
What is essential for a healthy life?
What surprises longevity researchers is that people who reach 100 years of age or older don’t always maintain healthy lifestyles.
As we mentioned earlier, Josefa Maria has smoked for most of her life and has lived a difficult life in a remote area of northeastern Brazil.
Surprisingly, according to a 2011 study by an American journal of 400 people over the age of 95, many habits were not healthy at all.
About 60 percent of people in the study were heavy smokers, and half of them were obese in their lifetime. And only three percent were vegetarians, and one of the most surprising things was that most of them didn’t exercise.
“They are in an inherently unusual situation because they have done and are doing the opposite of everything that we think would help people live longer,” says Professor Richard Frager of the University of Brighton in the UK. Is.’
Genetic influence
Scientists believe that genetic makeup plays an important role in people’s lives.
Those who live to be 100 years old or older are children of the damage that has affected those younger and younger. They also get away with unhealthy habits that lead to the death of many others.
Experts are trying to identify genetic advantages that are not so obvious. Another study published in 2020 showed that most people in this group had genes that predisposed them to age-related diseases.
The increase in the number of people reaching the age of 100 has led scientists to think that the human lifespan in general has increased.
The record for the oldest person
Until now, the oldest person on Earth was Jean-Louis Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122. She was officially the only person to live longer than 120 years.
Researchers at the University of Washington in the US believe that life expectancy will hit new highs this century and more people may put 125 or 130 candles on their cakes.
Michael Pearce, a researcher and statistician, says: ‘It is certain to us that in 2100 people will break the current age record and most likely there will be people who will reach the age of 126, 128 and even 130 years. will go.’
Pearce and Professor Adrian Raftery use global data on life expectancy to imagine the range of life expectancy in the coming decades.
They concluded that there is a 100 percent chance that the record will be broken and a 68 percent chance that someone will celebrate their 127th birthday in the coming decades.
Understanding the aging question
Science still has many questions to answer in order to understand the causes of aging.
Experts such as Dr Richard Savo, director of the Center for Aging Research at King’s College London, believe that improving quality of life is essential in a world with a rapidly aging population.
The United Nations estimates that there are more people over the age of 65 in the world than children under the age of five.
“The fundamental question is not how long we can live, but how much we can delay the ravages of aging and live longer and healthier lives,” Sevo explains.
“Thus, if we reach old age with good luck, we can enjoy life instead of suffering and suffering in those years.”
HelpAge, a network of non-governmental organizations helping the elderly worldwide, has identified that this philosophy is crucial in helping to see the elderly as a blessing and an opportunity. According to him, the elderly should not be seen as a burden and a hindrance.
“This fatalistic view of aging as a problem and a tragedy is misleading,” says Eduardo Klein, spokesman for HelpAge.
“Older people in good health can benefit human societies in a variety of ways, including economically.”
Also, don’t forget Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen of Great Britain was considered a centenarian at the age of 96. They had an increased workload because it is customary in Britain for the Queen to send letters to 100-year-olds.
The number of centenarians in the UK also reached its highest level in 2020 and continues to rise.